Vermont Travel Notes

Ben & Jerry's Homemade ice cream 7th annual Winter Festival is tomorrow, March 7.

Their factory tours will be free of charge and they will have games, ice cream (!), snow sculptures, food, sugar on snow (melted maple syrup poured over snow), and a gift sale.

Umiak Outfitters will be there offering snowshoe tours, along with food samplings from Cabot Cheese, Red Hen Bakery, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and Cider House BBQ Restaurant.

The event is at the Waterbury VT factory on Route 100 about 3/4 of a mile north (toward Stowe) from exit 10 on Interstate highway 89.

(c) 2009 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

Cabot Coop is a group of Vermont dairy farmers that was founded in 1919. They have a very good blog with lots of helpful information including recipes.

The blog just posted some Super Bowl Recipes I think you will find useful. They certainly sound delicious:

Point Spread
Cheese and Bean Quesadillas ("Sudden Turnovers")
Habanero Cheddar and Black Bean Spread
Hot as a Torch! Jalapeno Poppers
Baked Jalapeno Poppers
Hot Broccoli-Cheddar Dip
Pizza
"Pig Skins "
Hero Sandwiches
Nachos

The website also features a handy online recipe box you can use to store your favorites for future reference.

There is even a beer and cheese pairings page.

(c) 2009 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

Somehow, long ago, the tradition of having super sales during deer season got started in VT. If you live here, you know what I mean. You see newspaper advertisements addressed to "deer season widows" whose husbands are off in the woods in pursuit of deer. The deer hunting season in this state is huge, and so is this kick off to the shopping season.

There are two super sales that you might be interested in as destinations or stop offs while traveling in Vermont this weekend.

One of the biggest sales is the Cabot Hosiery Company ("Darn Tough") annual sale in Northfield VT, just a few minutes drive from the state capital of Montpelier. The company has been holding this sale for 29 years and it is a big one. Cabot Hosiery makes socks for both indoor and outdoor wear. I plan to go tomorrow and load up on Merino wool socks.

I went to the Black Diamond sale a few years ago and was impressed with the great prices on outdoor wear, mostly winter jackets, pants, and hats. Black Diamond, located just outside Montpelier, has excellent good quality products.

Remember the famous line: "The more your buy, the more you save!" Our economy needs you. Well, actually, it needs your money.



(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

One of the games on the Ben & Jerry's Halloween website pages is this "Undead Smackdown" (or ""Whack-A-Ghoul") game that I wasted about ten minutes playing. Use your mouse button to move the shovel and left click to bring the shovel down. Have fun!

I know from experience in talking with our inn's guests that many of them check the Ben & Jerry's website before they travel to Vermont (the company's Waterbury VT factory is about ten minutes from our facility). It is a very entertaining website with a mix of some seriousness thrown in once in a while.

If you go to the website, you can check the Ben & Jerry's Halloween page to find a lot of information including the history of Halloween, seasonal recipes, crafts, coloring book pages, safety tips, and some games. Note: when you go to the page and click on the Jack O Lantern, your pop-up blocker may prevent it from working. On Firefox browsers, click the bar above the web page and then click "Allow Pop-ups from benjerry.com." Then you can click the Jack O Lantern again to get into the website's Halloween section. Look at each page carefully and run your cursor over the various items that will then lead you to other pages.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

The next leaders of the free world. God help us.

In my September 21 entry, I mentioned that the Vermont Teddy Bear Company was selling Obama and McCain teddy bears. Now that the Vice Presidential candidates have been announced, Vermont Teddy Bear has rounded out the ticket with their four bears.

I had mentioned that it would be interesting to know which bear ticket was selling the most. In fact, if you look at the company's website, you will see that several thousand people have cast their "votes." You can do the same.

I was surprised to see that the McCain/Palin ticket was winning handily by about 2:1 over the Obama/Biden team - that certainly goes counter to all the polls I have seen lately.

Visit the company's Vermont stores In Shelburne VT and Waterbury Center VT, or order online the bears of your favorite candidates and don't forget to vote on November 4.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

The Vermont Fine Furniture and Woodworking Festival is being held this weekend, Sept 27 and 28, in the central Vermont village of Woodstock. Look for the high school on Route 4 west of the village. Very good directions are on the website too.

The website also lists about 45 Vermont furniture and wood craftsmen including links to their websites. There are some great looking furniture being made here in Vermont so stop by the show if you can or shop from home if you cannot travel to Vermont this weekend.

If addition to the furniture festival, you'll get to visit Woodstock VT which is not only one of the prettiest villages in New England, I think it is one of the best looking in the country. It is located a few minutes east of Exit 1, Interstate 89 near White River Junction VT.



Bed by Walt Stanley, Brookside Woodworking. He writes an interesting blog too.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn